Expected, Inspected, & Respected.
"We do not learn from experience … we learn from reflecting on experience."
-John Dewey |
"We do not learn from experience … we learn from reflecting on experience."
-John Dewey |
Yesterday, one of my professors told a story today about how one of his teachers came to him as an administrator with a problem: he had a student who considered himself a neo-Nazi and the teacher wanted to know what he should do about that. Should he let the student share his views in class or should he shut him down and not allow the debate to happen at all? My professor said that as long as the student was being respectful, he should be allowed to say what he believed. The teacher should model democracy in the classroom through free speech, letting reasoned debate reveal the ignorance of the student's position. One problem with this stance is that it defeats itself. It is not possible for someone to espouse Nazi doctrine and remain respectful. Just because you can avoid using the N-word while saying people of African descent should be enslaved or slaughtered, does not mean it should be allowed in class. Another problem is that free speech only applies to relations between citizens and their government. It means you can't be prosecuted for things you say in public (within limits), it does not mean that you, or the rest of your students have an obligation to listen to hateful rhetoric. I wouldn't tolerate intolerance in my classroom and lend legitimacy to a student with alt-right arguments by giving them a platform, no matter how small that stage might be. Instead, I would talk with them one-on-one, maybe discuss with their parents (as long as I was fairly certain that's not where the student was getting it from), or get in touch with a former neo-Nazi like Maxime Fiset to correspond with the student directly. I didn't say any of this to my professor because it was 5:00pm, class was almost over, and I'd been at the University since 8:00am. I was half hoping that one of my classmates would do the dirty work of challenging the professor - it would prolong the class, perhaps, but we would have the opportunity to find out if there was more to the story and to hear from other perspectives in the class as to what the best approach may be. It might be worthwhile bringing it up again because there's a good chance this professor would be willing to have an open and honest discussion about it. Update:I raised the issue yesterday in class and we all had a good discussion about it. It became clear that my classmates agreed with me about not letting hate have a platform (at least the ones who spoke up). However, it became less clear as to what the situation in the teacher's classroom really was. He said that maybe the student in question was making a presentation about Nazi motivations during WWII without saying that was how things ought to be. In that case, I could see the value in allowing the student to present. If you simply demonize the people who believed (and continue to believe) in Nazi propaganda without looking at their motivations and underlying beliefs, it's difficult to understand why the war happened at all.
Our professor wanted to make the point that if we ever have to teach family studies, there will be sensitive subjects that come up and we will have students who have opinions on things like homosexuality and abortion that we won't agree with and we need to have a plan in place for how to handle those things when the time comes. Message received.
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I've been working in schools as an educational assistant (EA) since 2004 and I've lost count of how many times I've heard students call each other gay. My response to this has evolved over the years. Early on, to my shame, I would sometimes ignore it, telling myself that they weren't trying to be hateful. Other times, I would pull the student aside, get down to their level, and take an empathetic approach, saying something like, "You have sideburns. How would you feel if people called each other 'sideburns' when they wanted to call each other stupid?" Students often responded by saying, "I wouldn't care." The older I get, the angrier it makes me to hear this kind of ignorance repeated in classrooms and hallways. I'm not angry with the students as much as with the insidious culture of casual homophobia and bigotry that was here long before they were. It perpetuates itself through off colour jokes, insults, and endorsements in the media. For instance, Community is one of my favourite TV shows, but scenes like this: give students implicit permission to continue thinking that it's an acceptable and humorous term to use when insulting their friends. It's not. If kids continue to mindlessly parrot casual hate by their peers, older siblings, and Youtube celebrities without being challenged, the cycle of bigotry is allowed to continue; it's easy for a way of acting to become a way of thinking. I decided a few years ago not to let it slide anymore. I also thought that this particular infraction deserved a categorically different response from things like running in the halls or being loud in the library. Instead of getting down on their level, I would tower over them and quietly, between my teeth, seeming barely able to contain my fury, say something like, "I don't think you realize the number of people you're hurting when you say hateful stuff like that. I don't think you're trying to be hateful, I just don't think you know how many people here have cousins, or brothers, or sisters, or friends who are gay and feel just awful right now because of you. You don't know who might be gay and feel like they have to hide it because of people who say those kinds of things. I don't want to hear that kind of thing from you again." The emotional delivery of the message and the fact that it's not a question usually means I don't get any snarky back talk. I had a feeling that I would eventually hear someone call one of their classmates gay during my practicum and was prepared to take that simmering anger speech and turn up the volume to deliver an impactful message to the whole class at the same time, instead of having to deliver the speech multiple times to different individuals. On November 28th, I had the opportunity to try this tactic and it definitely had an impact. My cooperating teacher (CT) was away for the day and, as it was early in the practicum block, some of the students were pushing boundaries to see what they could get away with. When a student (the same one who gave me problems during the snow ball fight writing activity) exclaimed, "That's so gay!", I let him and the entire class know, in a booming and angry voice, that homophobia was absolutely unacceptable in my classroom. The room went silent as 26 pairs of eyes turned from their writing workshop activities to watch me shout at a boy who tried unsuccessfully to defend himself against my anti-homophobic tirade; I would not hear his attempted explanation of why it was ok for him to say that in class. By the end of it, the class (and probably the class next door) knew exactly where I stood on the issue of using the word "gay" in a derogatory manner. I'd like to think that this was an effective intervention but the truth is that I really don't know. According to Chip and Dan Heath, my simple, unexpected, and emotional message would have a high probability of sticking in the brain. However, I don't know if it actually changed any minds or if it just means students will be more careful about how they speak around me in the future. I also don't know if the damage I did to any relationships with my students outweighed the good it may have done. All I know is that I would like everyone, and Hollywood in particular, to follow jomny sun's lead and leave ironic bigotry behind. Let me know what you think is the best way to deal with this problem. Is it sometimes a good idea to yell or make an example of someone in front of the class? I think this incident was a big part of the reason why I continued to have problems with this particular student throughout the rest of my practicum. Was damaging our student-teacher relationship worth it? Did it change any minds or did it simply change his behaviour? Does that even matter? If it's easier to act your way into right thinking than to think your way into right action, is simply stopping the offensive action a win? What strategies have worked well for you in your classroom? Leave a comment below to share wisdom or your own experiences with casual bigotry.
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David Wiebe
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